Belated C-Brat Christmas present; free 2014 Waggoner's Gd.

D

ddenver

New member
A late Merry Christmas present to all the C-Brats! A free download of Waggoner's 2014 Cruising Guide...... this was a posting on the TugNuts site from back on December 18th.

The original TugNut's post is at .... http://www.tugnuts.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4481

...this will then lead you to the actual Waggoner's link at.....
http://waggonerguide.com/content/download-2014-waggoner-cruising-guide-0

I wanted to include the original TugNut's link since that fine site is also maintained by the same wonderful folks who bring us the C-Brat's site ...Da Nag and Tyboo. Thanks guys!

Have a safe and memorable New Year's and 2014 and enjoy the Waggoner's Cruising Guide download!

Take care,
Dan, Tanya, and Hannah on C-Renity
 
Perfect timing as I lay here in bed, ready to read my 2006 copy of Waggoneer Cruising Guide...preplanning for a trip to the San Juan's next summer!
 
Everyone enjoys free, but I have a question. How do Waggoner's get paid? If they lose too much revenue and can not cover cost and make a profit, surely that means the end of the book?

Martin.
 
bridma":17tt177p said:
Everyone enjoys free, but I have a question. How do Waggoner's get paid? If they lose too much revenue and can not cover cost and make a profit, surely that means the end of the book?

Martin.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of advertising in it. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if the production costs of the e-version are considerably less than the paper one. Maybe advertising revenues are enough?
 
Thanks for posting this, Dan.

Check out page 154 for a new sidebar from our very own Capt. Jim (Bathurst). I think it's an excellent addition to the book. Thanks Jim!

As some of you know, I'm the Waggoner Guide managing editor. We've experimented with an iPad app the last couple of years, but it's expensive to keep updated and difficult to monetize. More importantly, perhaps, is that it's tough for a small company like us to keep up with all the different gadgets (iOS, Android, Kindle, Surface, etc.).

The PDF is easy for us to produce, most people are familiar with the interface, and almost every modern smartphone, tablet, and computer can open it. We've had a lot of customers asking for an electronic version, and this makes the most sense at the moment.

We decided to offer the PDF as a free download. This way we can keep track of how many downloads (and therefore readers) we have, which is useful when selling ads. Since it's free, there's little incentive for boaters to share the file with their friends. As I'm sure you've also noticed, we capture your email address and some other basic info before you download the guide. We'll then send you our eNews emails (free, and you can unsubscribe anytime) once a month in the off season and every other week during the boating season.

It's too early to tell what impact the download will have on book sales, but we don't think it will be too significant. I know I still find the physical book a lot easier to use quickly than the PDF. Besides, advertising is much more lucrative than book sales. Increasing our distribution, whether it is through downloads or book sales, is important.

If you have any trouble downloading the guide, don't hesitate to ask for help. And if you have feedback about the book or eNews, please let me know.

Best,
Sam
 
Sam,

Thank you VERY much indeed for offering the guide as a free PDF download. It is totally awesome to have such easy access to it on any device.

As to the problem of keeping apps synced across the various platforms, I was wondering if you had considered any of the cross-platform app toolkits like Unity or phonegap? Distributing the guide as a PDF is a stroke of genius in my opinion - just curious about other distribution possibilities.

Thanks again!
Will
 
Thanks for the nice mention, Sam; I am a big fan of the Waggoner's Guide. When I first saw the free PDF download, I thought: brilliant! When in the PNW, we cruise with the Waggoner's Guide at the ready. You know I embraced the iPad for navigation early on (and still do), but there are still some things that are faster and easier with a book. Coming into a new (or even familiar) area, the chartplotter and iPad showing position, and the first mate reading the particulars out of the Waggoner's... that works for us.

Joan said, "There are people who are going to download that PDF, look at all the great places to cruise, and see how the guide takes the 'unknown' out of the equation. Get a chance to preview it for free - I can see where that will sell even more books." She downloaded it when we first saw that post on the TugNuts site.

The PDF is great for "planning and dreaming" 'till we get the 2014 book.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Sam, I did not know of your position with Waggoners. Many, many thanks to your company for making this free download. I don't believe it is asking too much for one's email address to put them on a mailing list....just as long as the email doesn't end up on a whole bunch of marketing lists! (I'm ok reading the advertisements in the file...I just don't care for my email to be bombarded later from companies I did not agree to receive from!) While I still prefer print over digital at times, it's great to be able to be able to have the stuff loaded on my iPad and Laptop for easy searching, or when I don't have the printed books with me. In this case, I purchased the 2006 edition quite some time ago while thinking about taking my boat then out to the San Juans. Never got there, but planning on doing it this summer, so I had actually had that edition right next to me to start reading again, when I saw the information posted here about the free download. Talk about timing. Colby P.s. I did have trouble downloading this straight to my iPad; however no problem with downloading to my Laptop...and I can use itunes from there to put it in my iPad's "Good Reader". I think the problem was just due to the size of the file, and the way my iPad and home's wireless work. Once I started the download to my iPad, and had problems I wasn't sure how to recapture the download link. However, I still had the original email msg linking to that site, and was able to just click on it again to restart the download on my Laptop. Thanks again!
 
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